


Wordplay

by gwendee



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Crushes, Fluff, Gen, High School, Humor, M/M, Post-Canon, Romantic Comedy, Slice of Life, Words, Writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2019-10-28 07:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 14,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17783243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwendee/pseuds/gwendee
Summary: “I just want to let you know,” Akabane says, braced against the door of the classroom he just barged in, “that you’re the apple of my eye, light of my life, if I had a uterus I would willingly have your babies, you are a beautiful gift from god-”“What the fuck are you going on about,” Gakushuu says.“If you help me do this one thing I will never annoy you again,” Akabane pleads, “takes no effort on your part at all, just five seconds of your time, maybe ten. I will never put wasabi into your lunches or hide your pens or put your phone number down for mailing lists about pet products-”“You still haven’t actually told me what you needed my help for,” Gakushuu points out.“Asano,” Akabane takes a deep breath, “the principal wants me to give a talk to Kunugigaoka Middle School about the value of studying and hard work because I was a 3-E student that got first place.”Or: Gakushuu and Karma write a speech. Like everything else they do, it never goes exactly as planned.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! It's me!  
> So in one of my previous fics I said I was "working on something" and it's still in the "what-is-happening" stage but I decided to debut the first chapter in light of the holiday today: Valentine's!

“I just want to let you know,” Akabane says, braced against the door of the classroom he just barged in, “that you’re the apple of my eye, light of my life, if I had a uterus I would willingly have your babies, you are a beautiful gift from god-”

“What the fuck are you going on about,” Gakushuu says, eyes narrowed and staring suspiciously. Ink is bleeding onto the paper from where he has the tip of his pen pressed to. 

“If you help me do this one thing I will never annoy you again,” Akabane pleads, “takes no effort on your part at all, just five seconds of your time, maybe ten. I will never put wasabi into your lunches or hide your pens or put your phone number down for mailing lists about pet products-”

“That was you?” Gakushuu says incredulously, “I got texts about dog food for weeks!”

“It was supposed to be a joke on how you were a little bitch, can we /please/ focus on the problem at hand?” Akabane actually sounds desperate, which is piquing Gakushuu’s curiosity more than anything.

“You still haven’t actually told me what you needed my help for,” Gakushuu points out.

Akabane takes a deep breath. “Look, the principal-”

“No,” Gakushuu interrupts. 

Akabane’s eyes widen. “But-”

“Absolutely not,” Gakushuu says. He turns back to his work, and scowls at the comically large full stop he managed to smudge onto his paper. He reaches for his earbuds but Akabane rips them out of his hands. 

“You’re the only one who can help me,” Akabane says, “please, baby, darling, honey-”

“Please don’t start that again,” Gakushuu grimaces, “I don’t want to be a part of whatever you’re doing with the principal. Don’t even bother telling me about it. I want to claim plausible deniability in court.”

“I will suck your dick,” Akabane says seriously, “right now, in this classroom, if you let me finish my monologue.”

“I will let you finish your monologue on the sole condition that you do absolutely /not that/.”

“Asano,” Akabane says, “the principal wants me to give a talk to Kunugigaoka Middle School about the value of studying and hard work because I was a 3-E student that got first place.”

Gakushuu tries to keep a straight face. He lasts for about three seconds.

“Stop laughing!” Akabane shouts, distraught, “shut up! I can’t give a motivational speech! Asano!”

“This is fucking hilarious.” Gakushuu is laughing so hard his abs and cheeks start to hurt. “Losing those 3 points to you was almost worth it.”

“The hopes and dreams of your juniors are at stake here!” Akabane starts pulling at his hair. “Show some sympathy for their plight! The children who just want a proper education! At my mercy!”

“You’re giving a speech, not rewriting their curriculum,” Gakushuu says, amused.   
“Me! Holding a microphone! In front of the entire cohort!”

“A true inspiration,” Gakushuu snickers. “A 3-E student, rising to the top, attaining a perfect score-”

Akabane lets out a long, drawn out groan, and slumps to the ground. He scowls at Gakushuu and crosses his arms.

Gakushuu laughs for a good five minutes, because he can picture his father’s face and that mild, infuriating smile that he would wear when describing his grand plan to a flabbergasted Akabane,  a wave of a hand here and a raised eyebrow there at any hysterics Akabane might display in his office. Then he straightens up and rubs his palms against his aching cheeks and says, “well, what do you want me to do about it?”

“You have to stop him,” Akabane says, “talk some sense into him.”

“What makes you think that man listens to me?” Gakushuu leans back in his chair. His work can wait, this entire predicament is infinitely more hilarious.

“You’re the best chance I have,” Akabane pleads, “I will pay for all your meals for this entire year.”

“Tempting,” Gakushuu pretends to consider, “but watching you flounder on stage would be a far bigger reward.”

Akabane narrows his eyes. “I will kiss you,” he says, and he looks determined enough that Gakushuu leans away for good measure. He’s not entirely sure if Akabane meant that as a threat or a /reward/.

“If you really don’t want to,” Gakushuu says, a little unnerved with how Akabane currently has his gaze fixated on his mouth, “just tell him no.”

Akabane falls silent. It’s a very familiar silence that Gakushuu knows all too well.

“You already agreed,” Gakushuu says. He knows he hits the nail on the head with Akabane shoots him another pained look. He feels another grin creep on his face.

“I appreciate you,” Akabane tells him, sounding oddly genuine, “I have an immense respect for you, for facing that man every single day of your life.”

Gakushuu raises an eyebrow. 

“For being the sole defender of the universe,” Akabane places a hand on his heart, “the warrior standing between Gakuhou Asano, and the rest of the world, you have my deepest and most sincere gratitude.”

Gakushuu blinks once, twice. He knows Akabane meant it as ridiculous hyperbole, but for some inexplicable reason, he’s oddly touched. 

But back to the matter at hand. Gakushuu clears his throat. “Well, I really can’t do anything, especially if you already told him yes?”   
“Was I supposed to say no?!” Akabane shrieks, “he’s terrifying! You understand that!”

“Well,” Gakushuu says, making a decision that he’s sure will bring him months of entertainment unmatched by any piece of media that currently exists in this world, “I’ll help you-”

Akabane throws his hands up. “I love you!”

“-write your speech,” Gakushuu finishes.

Akabane’s jaw drops. “No,” he breathes.

Gakushuu nods, smugly. “Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“NO.”

“YES.”

“I hate you,” Akabane hisses, “I take back every nice thing I ever said about you. I hope you suffer a slow, painful-”

“So you don’t want my help with your speech?” Gakushuu smirks.

Akabane’s mouth shuts with an audible click. He looks like he’s having an internal conflict.

Gakushuu waits. He glances over at his unfinished paper, then back at Akabane, who looks like he’s engaged in a serious debate with the wall across the room.

One paragraph later, Akabane looks like he’s in the middle of a prayer ritual of sorts.

Two more, and Akabane seems to have simultaneously ascended into a higher plane of existence and also been plunged into the deepest level of hell.

Gakushuu writes his concluding paragraph. Akabane surges to his feet and glares.

“Yes?”

“Help me,” he spits out, flustered. His entire face is red.

Gakushuu smiles at him. 

“Don’t do that, you look like your dad.”

On any other day, Gakushuu might be offended. Today, it makes him tilt his head and smile more, in the way he knows makes him look like a carbon copy of the man he shares his surname with, sans hair.

Akabane looks incredibly disturbed. Gakushuu counts that as a win.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Welcome to this wordpile.

Gakushuu’s not bitter about it, he isn’t. He knows it’s his father’s roundabout way of voicing his disappointment for his grades, going behind his back and telling Akabane to give the school address that is usually done by the graduating valedictorian. Of course Gakushuu still took valedictorian, a single examination achieving second instead of first hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things when he is backed by his previous excellent record. And of course if Gakushuu wanted to be technical about it, there was no “going behind his back” because his father was the goddamn principal and could do whatever he so well wished without having to explain himself to his student. 

Then again there was Gakuhou’s sudden change of heart or something where he had a sudden realization that his teaching strategies and totalitarian school governance was detrimental to the growth of the future generation, and was trying to atone for his misdeeds by letting Akabane, well known delinquent and an E-class student, instil some hope and humility into Kunugigaoka Middle by giving a moving speech.

Gakuhou might not have factored in Akabane’s complete inability to write said speech. Then again, Gakuhou might have also known that Akabane would come to Gakushuu for help and thus produce something satisfactory. 

That man was an enigma. Gakushuu had long learnt to accept that “all will be known in due time” when it came to dealing with the principal, but that didn’t mean he liked waiting for answers to materialize in front of him. 

Speaking of, was the whole debacle of whatever-the-fuck-happened-in-3-E that Gakuhou was still being mum about towards the public and his son’s incessant questioning. Gakushuu had read all the official statements released by the governments and he has tons of google alerts on every single news situation mildly relating to the matter, and he’s nowhere close to decoding what actually happened. Akabane is being annoyingly quiet on the whole thing, and months of Gakushuu attempting to be nice to the guy hadn’t cracked his shell a single bit. 

Maybe if Gakushuu had been slightly less nice, they wouldn’t have ended up like this. But here they were, Akabane seated across Gakushuu and making faces at the empty notepad in front of him, students in the library looking over in curiosity, which is rather unnecessary in Gakushuu’s opinion because it’s not like he and Akabane don’t spend time together. They ate lunch together in a cafe outside school last week and got papped by their classmates. 

“When’s your speech happening?” Gakushuu asks, not like he already doesn’t know.

“Their graduation,” Akabane says mulishly, poking his paper with a pen. 

“Plenty of time to write a speech,” Gakushuu says.

“I have three weeks,” Akabane says. 

“Plenty of time,” Gakushuu says, again.

Akabane wordlessly reaches over to keysmash on Gakushuu’s laptop. Fortunately it’s open on a pdf, and Akabane only barely succeeds in scrolling up about three pages. 

Gakushuu shuts the laptop on his fingers. Akabane yelps. 

“You said you’ll help me!” Akabane whines. “I don’t know how to get started with any of this.”

“Just figure out what you want to say and write it down.”

“Thanks.”

“I mean it,” Gakushuu rolls his eyes, “figure out how you’re going to approach the topic, perseverance and humility, yes? Since you don’t possess any humility whatsoever, you don’t have to talk about yourself. The entire 3-E made a tremendous improvement in their grades, so you can focus on teamwork and group effort, and the story of an entire class improving as opposed to an individual is far more powerful anyways. Talk about what happened - well, not the, uh, assassination part. Talk about your study methods, your attitudes and mindsets. My suggestion is to put emphasis on growth and change; don’t talk about the result, talk about the process. Emotional states, motivations, obstacles faced in the form of standardized tests made to suit the pace of the upper class or things like that, how your class overcame those obstacles. “

Akabane looks deep in thought.

“Make a list,” Gakushuu tells him, “points you want to bring up. Since you’re speaking anyways, might as well actually instill some self-esteem in the lower E classes. Ask your old classmates if you’re stuck, they probably have better points since they’re the ones who had to fight and improve. You were always intelligent so that already put you bars above them.”

Akabane looks down at his piece of paper, and taps against the table thoughtfully. Gakushuu turns back to his work. 

Then there’s a small nudge at his feet. When Gakushuu looks up, Akabane looks rather awkward, and he says “thanks.” Gakushuu keeps his face blank. ”Sure.”

Akabane seems to put effort into being less irksome, if any. Gakushuu receives only three paper airplanes to the back of his head for the whole of Tuesday, and Tuesday is a five-airplane day, at minimum. Wednesday sees Gakushuu’s lunch-with-Akabane day (the aforementioned cafe outing happened on a Wednesday) rather… interestingly, to say the least; their routine playful banter interrupted with Akabane at first attempting to sneak bits of his bento into Gakushuu’s lunch, then just straight-up him trying to feed it to him. 

Gakushuu declines, of course, then spends 5 minutes trying to dodge an insistent pair of chopsticks. Akabane actually seems hurt by the rejection but never let it be said that Gakushuu was not a practical man, he can’t be 100 percent sure the food is completely harmless. The wasabi smoothie incident weighs heavily at the back of his mind. 

Thursday, Akabane slaps what seems to be a short essay onto Gakushuu’s table.

Gakushuu surveys it for a total of half a second. “No,” he says.

“You promised!” Akabane stomps a foot like a child.

“Your handwriting is atrocious,” Gakushuu tells him flatly, “I can’t tell where one word ends and the other starts.”

“You didn’t even read it,” Akabane whines.

Gakushuu gingerly picks the paper up, and squints. “I don’t think I can even if I try,” he admits, “did you spill coffee on this?”

“The stain’s mostly gone,” Akabane protests, “it’s legible.”

“It most definitely is not,” Gakushuu wrinkles his nose at it. “Can’t you just type things out like a normal person?” 

“I didn’t have time!” Akabane says, exasperated.

“You wrote two words on top of each other right here.”

“Oh,” Akabane sighs, “okay, maybe it’s kind of bad. I’ll type it out. Better for editing anyways.”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. Akabane seems to consider it as a dismissal, says “bye baby,” and bounces off. Gakushuu manages to go through a few more math questions before Ren’s gaze burning into the back of his head gets too annoying. “What?” he says, not bothering to look up, and a few people turn over but Gakushuu knows that Ren knows he’s being addressed.

Ren walks over, grabs an empty chair next from an empty desk next to Gakushuu and pulls it over. “So what’s up with you and Akabane?” He asks. 

“What makes you think anything is up?”

“He threw only three paper planes at you on Tuesday, and Tuesday is a five paper plane day,” Ren says, “and he asked me what your favorite food was.”

Gakushuu snickers. “Dear old dad decided to make Akabane give a speech to Kunugigaoka Middle about improvement and perseverance, because he was an E-class student that got first.”

Ren’s eyebrows disappear into his hairline. “The only reason he was put in 3-E was because he was a delinquent, he would’ve been put in A, otherwise. Why would that make a good speech?”

“Reason number one is because father is fucking weird,” Gakushuu huffs, “reason number two is that he wants to rub it in my face that I’m not top, and reason number three is that that man actually feels the slightest bit if guilt over his totalitarian regime and is trying to atone for his sins by instilling hope into the lower classes while at the same time telling the upper years that if they get too cocky, they’ll lose out.”

Ren blinks. “Oh, okay,” he says, “you’re helping Akabane write his speech?”

“It’s funny as fuck,” Gakushuu tells him.

“Fair point.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think so far? Haha, suggestions for plot or improvement, hit me up! Anything at all.


	3. Chapter 3

“Check your email.”

Gakushuu blinks. “You texted me to get me to call you to tell me to check my email.”

“Yep,” Akabane says. “Check your email.”

Gakushuu doesn’t know why he humors him, he really doesn’t. Akabane hums to himself on the other line. 

“You mean your speech?” Gakushuu stares at the attached file, labelled FUCK WORDS, and way too many pages long. “This is too much content.”

“Really?” Akabane sounds surprised. “I still don’t know what to talk about. I just asked 3-E for suggestions and put down everything they said.”

“I can tell,” Gakushuu says, not bothering to keep the judgement out of his voice. “This is an absolute mess. Look through it and filter out the points you definitely won’t talk about, then separate the rest into the topics you want to bring up, and the ones you’re ambivalent towards.”

“Hm,” Akabane says, “yeah, I can do that.”

Gakushuu scrolls through the document. “How long is your speech?”

“Ten minutes?” It comes out as a question.

“Go for fifteen.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. It’s better to summarize and cut out content you already have than try to write more an hour before, or worse still, improvise on stage.”

“I’m great at winging things,” Akabane proclaims.

Gakushuu actually snorts at that. “I’m sure,” he says. 

“Stay on the line with me?” Akabane says. 

Gakushuu furrows his brows. “Why?”

“Doing stuff is better with company,” Akabane tells him, “even if company is you.”

“Flattered,” Gakushuu says flatly. “Fine.” He sets the phone on speaker and sets it on the table, and goes back to his math worksheets. 

“Awesome,” Akabane says, “what are you doing now?”

“Math,” Gakushuu says mildly. 

“Ew,” Akabane says, “oh, I never did ask you. The school year is practically over, how come you still have so much work to do?”

“I’m helping the teachers with their material for next year, actually,” Gakushuu says.

“Oh, nerd,” Akabane snickers. 

“You’re as much of a nerd as I am,” Gakushuu says. 

“I’m the least nerd in this school of nerds.”

“And yet here you are, giving a speech about studying and working hard.”

Akabane whines over the phone. “You sure you can’t get your dad to change his mind?”

“You’re welcome to try for yourself,” Gakushuu says. 

He imagines Karma making a face. “Uh, I’ll pass.”

Gakushuu glances up at the clock, then at his unfinished work. “I really do need to get some work done. I don’t mind keeping this line open, but you need to shut up.”

“Aww,” Akabane says, “that’s so boring! All I’ll hear is background noise. I wanna hear your awesome awesome voice, Shuu.”

“Don’t call me that,” Gakushuu sighs.

“Baby,” Akabane starts, “honey, darling-”

“Are you really this bored?”

“Cupcake-”

Gakushuu feels a headache coming along. He doesn’t know why he does these things, honest. He and Akabane aren’t even that close of friends. He rubs the bridge of his nos. “...Do you really want company?”

“Be my white knight, baby?” Akabane says, “break me out of this tower of solitude?”

Gakushuu sighs, again. Then, “you have my address, right?”

“I’ve never been to your house.”

“I didn’t ask if you’ve been to my house, I asked if you have my address.”

“You know me so well, babe,” Karma says. 

Gakushuu hits the end-call button.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe hey guys I am ashamed of myself


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back to the next installment of "gwen's first attempt at a slow-burn fic"

Gakushuu kind of has an idea on why he invited Akabane over. 

Sitting across his father during dinner and feeling more alone than when he was the only person at home, sometime ago when Akabane offhandedly mentions his parents overseas with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes, and the deathly silence in the car rides to and fro school so unnerving that Gakushuu chooses to walk.

Gakushuu is no stranger to an empty house.

Akabane practically makes home on the bed, sprawling out and burying his face in Gakushuu’s sheets.

“So soft,” Akabane mutters, “I’m stealing your bed.”

“Seems like it,” Gakushuu replies. Akabane says something else that Gakushuu can’t make out but seems like it was directed more towards his pillows than him, so Gakushuu leaves him be and continues with his work.

Akabane finally gets to the process of pulling his laptop out of his bag and opening it, lying on his stomach on Gakushuu bed. He starts typing.

Gakushuu watches him. Akabane has a tongue sticking out and hair falling in front of his eyes, which irritates him mildly such that he keeps pushing it back. 

He goes back to his essay. Akabane is uncharacteristically silent but it’s a comfortable quiet, soft typing and turning of book pages as background noise. 

A little bit later, Akabane starts humming. It’s too low for Gakushuu to recognize what it is. 

Gakushuu looks up when the humming stops, to see Akabane lying on his side and staring at Gakushuu with an unrecognizable look in his eyes. 

“What?” Gakushuu asks, eyebrow raised. 

“Nothing,” Akabane mutters, face a little red. Then, “thanks.”

“Hm?”

“Letting me come over.”

“Real quiet back at your house, huh,” Gakushuu comments, side-eyeing Akabane, who stiffens.

“Yeah,” Akabane says awkwardly.

Gakushuu presses several keys. Akabane is still staring at him thoughtfully. Gakushuu decides to test the waters.

“When do your parents come back?”

“I don’t know. Anytime, really. Sometimes they bother to text me but most of the time I just go home from school and they’re already there.”

Gakushuu turns around on his chair. Akabane has his gaze down on his keyboard, his hands wringing together.

He wasn’t just the nonchalant, devil-may-care delinquent everyone made him out to be. Gakushuu knew that for a fact, but having it played out instead of written down was starkly different.

There was no point in bringing up his own father, not to make something like this a competition, nor to show sympathy. Gakushuu himself would hate anyone who tried to pity him, and there was no doubt that Akabane would, too.

“That sucks,” Gakushuu settles on saying.

Akabane laughs, unbiddenly. “It does.” He looks at Gakushuu, mirth dancing in his eyes.

Then he goes back to typing, staring at his computer. Gakushuu turns back to his own work and a companionable silence falls between them.

Then Akabane breaks the silence. “Want to go out?”

Gakushuu’s not sure if he heard correctly. “Pardon?”

“For lunch,” he clarifies. 

“Oh,” Gakushuu says, “I think Tamiko cooked for us.”

“Your housekeeper?” Akabane rolls onto his back. “Your dad at work?”

“School management never gets recess breaks, not even on weekends, apparently,” Gakushuu says, flatly. It’s not a funny joke but Akabane snorts.

“What did she make?” Akabane asks, “you asked her to make lunch for me?”

“Coming over at ten in the morning, I assumed you were staying over for at least one meal,” Gakushuu tells him.

“At least one? What if I stay over for two?” Akabane rolls to the middle of the bed, and sprawls out. He closes his eyes.

Gakushuu finds himself watching the rise and fall of Karma’s chest, and the way his eyelashes flutter shut. “If you want to,” he says mildly, “father is usually back for dinner.”

“Yeesh,” Akabane huffs. “Let’s go out for dinner then. You ever been to that western restaurant on fifth street?”

“Across the florist?”

“Yeah, next to those kitschy hipster gift shops,” Akabane says.

“That place is a tourist trap,” Gakushuu says.

“Food’s still good,” Akabane says. “This is too comfortable. I’m going to take a nap.”

“It’s almost lunch,” Gakushuu reminds.

“Lunch can wait,” Akabane yawns. He flips onto his stomach and pillows his head with his arms. Then Gakushuu hears soft breathing. 

He waits a few minutes. “Are you really asleep?” 

“Not with you talking,” comes Akabane’s muffled reply. “You should nap, too.”

“What, with you?” Gakushuu raises an eyebrow.

“Mhm,” Akabane looks up and grins saucily, “I’ve been trying to get into your bed for a whole year. What’s the point without you in it?”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. “Do you ever get bored of this?”

“Of what?” Akabane asks innocently, eyes wide.

“This,” Gakushuu gestures weakly to nothing, “thing.”

“Honey, babe,” Karma starts, “sweetie-”

“Yes, exactly, that,” Gakushuu says, slightly frustrated. “Plenty of girls in Kunugigaoka would gladly go out with you, bad boy reputation or not, actually, maybe because of the bad boy reputation, but-”

“I’m just not interested,” Akabane interrupts. 

Gakushuu pauses. He glances over at Akabane, who looks deep in thought and has a red face. 

“In anyone?” Gakushuu asks curiously.

“In- well, I don’t know, yeah, I don’t like anyone,” Akabane huffs. 

“Oh,” Gakushuu says. He goes back to his work.

The silence that stretches between them turns weird, so Gakushuu looks up to see Akabane regard him with a thoughtful expression. “What?” He demands, a little irritably. 

“Do you like anyone?” Akabane asks.

“No,” Gakushuu replies curtly.

“Really?”

“Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you about it,” Gakushuu says, “but I don’t.”

“Aww,” Akabane actually pouts, he thinks he’s so cute but he’s not. “Aren’t we friends, Shuu?”

“Barely,” Gakushuu mutters, then immediately regrets it.

“Barely!” Akabane cheers. He rolls onto his back and throws his hands up. “That’s practically a love confession, coming from you.”

Gakushuu rubs his temples. “Why did I let you into my house again?”

“Because,” Akabane says, a shit-eating grin on his face, “you love me.”

It takes all of Gakushuu’s willpower not to chuck the laptop straight at Akabane’s skull. Which is why he throws his water bottle instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've fallen into a hole and I can't get out-


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hah hi guys!

“I wrote you a love letter,” Akabane sings, plopping into the seat across Gakushuu.

“Have you,” Gakushuu humors. Akabane hands him an envelope, to which Gakushuu opens and reveals a short bullet list of points for his speech. 

“Good,” Gakushuu says, “arrange them into the order you want to bring up.”

Akabane groans. “That’s too much work.”

“The hardest part is usually finding content.” Gakushuu glances over the page again. “You’ve already got that covered.”

“But now I have to make the words go,” Akabane whines.

“Take this like another essay question,” Gakushuu says, “you’re good at that.”

“A compliment from the great student council president, Asano Gakushuu?” Akabane gasps dramatically, pressing a hand to his chest.

“Fuck off,” says Gakushuu.

“Bad word!” Akabane shouts, “an imposter!”

Gakushuu rolls up the paper and whacks him over the head with it. Akabane giggles.

He must be going insane, Gakushuu thinks, if he found that cute.

“Hey,” says Akabane, “where do you want to eat later? Do you like soba?”

“Soba is acceptable,” Gakushuu says.

Akabane snorts. “Sure, baby, anything for your refined tastes.” He stretches languidly and then wanders off, and his seat is promptly reoccupied by Ren.

“How’s the speech going?” He asks curiously.

“Terribly,” Gakushuu says. He offers an earbud to Ren, who slides closer and takes it. 

“Want to come over tomorrow? Koyama wanted to try baking cookies but he blew up his mom’s oven and she kicked him out of the kitchen indefinitely.”

“And you decided that the next logical step was to offer yours?” Gakushuu says incredulously, “how did he mess up that badly? Baking’s like chemistry.”

“If you asked him, he would say that baking is absolutely nothing like chemistry,” Ren snickers.

“Count me in, this is a spectacle I need to witness,” Gakushuu says. 

They sit in companionable silence for a moment. Then Ren says, “you don’t even like soba.”

Gakushuu groans. He doesn’t… not like soba. It’s just so… well, there was nothing bad about soba. Just wasn’t his preference, Gakushuu supposes. 

“Shut your mouth,” Akabane says much later as he jabs a chopstick accusingly, when Gakushuu is poking his noodles and the former has his face stuffed. Gakushuu grimaces.

“Chew, heathen,” Gakushuu says.

“How could you not love soba?” Akabane gasps like he’s scandalized, “soba’s the most amazing, delicious, brilliant invention of god-”

“You don’t even like soba that much,” Gakushuu says.

Akabane narrows his eyes. “I do now.”

Gakushuu scowls at him. “Do you always have to oppose me in everything I do?”

“We’re yin and yang, my beloved,” Karma sighs, holding a hand to his forehead, “the sun and the moon, forever on opposite ends of the horizon, chasing each other for all of eternity-”

Gakushuu jams a gyoza into his mouth, shutting him up. Akabane chokes and gives Gakushuu a betrayed look, and downs his tea like a scalding shot.

“Maybe soba isn’t that bad after all,” Gakushuu thinks aloud, and retaliates evenly when Akabane kicks him under the table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D


	6. Chapter 6

Baking isn’t on the list of Gakushu’s favorite things. Hardly anything is on that list, to be perfectly honest, but one of the things that are is “not having his time wasted”, so he doesn’t really know why he’s spending so much of that time indulging the people he call his friends in their ridiculous activities.

Thus cue baking. 

It would be funnier if there was a baking montage, Gakushuu thinks, as he watches Koyama scream at the mixing bowl in his hands, and Ren scream about nothing in particular. Like in a romantic comedy.

He can’t picture any of them in a rom-com. Maybe Ren, but Ren was more likely to be the douchey ex-boyfriend that the main character eventually sweeps the female love interest away from.

“Gakushuu!” Ren wails.

“Your decision, your consequences,” Gakushuu calls peacefully from his perch on the couch.

“You haven’t even started! Why is there flour on my ceiling?!”

“It’s not my fault you have a flour-attracting ceiling,” Koyama defends.

Ren is pulling at his hair. “That doesn’t even make sense!”

Next to Gakushuu, Araki is busy snapping pictures. “This would make a good montage,” Araki says.

“Like a rom-com,” Gakushuu muses.

“Rom-com?” Araki echoes. He turns to stare at the duo. “I can’t picture any of us in a rom-com. Except maybe you.”

Gakushuu blinks. “Me?”

“Sure,” Araki shrugs, “you’re the super successful CEO character that gets charmed by the cute quirky love interest that at first seems like your total opposite, but turns out to be your equal in snarky comebacks.”

Gakushuu opens his mouth. Closes it. Narrows his eyes at Araki, who smiles innocently back.

“...Okay,” Gakushuu finally says. Araki grins, self-satisfyingly, and turns his camera back to where Seo is trying and failing to crack an egg, and Ren is laying newspapers everywhere on his floor.  The oven doesn’t blow up this time, because they don’t make it anywhere near said oven in the first place.

“Boss, kick him out of the big five,” Seo practically begs.

“Me? None of you idiots can fold a paper flower,” Koyama taunts.

“Why would I need to fold a paper flower?!” Seo yells, “what real life applications does paper flower folding provide me?”

“I can fold a paper flower,” Araki offers. 

“I bet girls would dig that,” Ren thinks, then, “Koyama, Araki, teach me how to fold a paper flower.”

“You were going to add salt to the cake,” Seo stresses, “salt, Koyama. Salt!”

“Salt’s pH neutral,” Koyama defends, “it won’t affect anything.”

“Taste!” Ren practically shrieks, the same time as Seo’s “then why did you add it?!”

“I hate spending time with you all,” Gakushuu sighs. 

“No you don’t,” Araki says easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The big five are absolute idiots, I love them


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heheh I love Big Five too. Should I write more about them?

“Check it out,” Ren says proudly, throwing something onto Gakushuu’s table.

Akabane makes an offended squawk, because throwing paper things at Gakushuu’s table was his thing and no one else’s, as he very angrily demonstrated to Yuji four months prior, whose plane had initially been aimed at the trash and had the misfortune to fly over restricted airspace, or also known as Gakushuu’s desk.

Ren ignores Akabane. Gakushuu picks up and surveys the paper flower. “Nice,” he says approvingly.

“I didn’t know you were into origami,” Masami looks over with wide eyes. Ren, ever the opportunist, grins at her and goes off into a monologue that piques the interest of two other girls. Gakushuu rolls his eyes in Araki’s direction and sees Akabane staring over with a determined expression. 

Gakushuu should have known a focused Akabane spells nothing but trouble because it’s only a blissful ten minutes into study hall when something unmistakably paper bounces off the back of his head. 

It’s a paper flower. Akabane waggles his brows.

“You’re a child,” Gakushuu mouths at him. 

Akabane beams in response.

Ren, who’s charmed his classmates for the upteenth time, turns around and stares at the flower. Narrows his eyes. 

And thus begins the origami competition between the two boys, who have unanimously appointed one reluctant Gakushuu as a judge. 

“The greatest minds of our generation,” Gakushuu intones flatly. Next to him, Kuroshi giggles.

“Aww, was that a compliment I hear?” Akabane says. He lobs another flower, and Gakushuu grabs it out of the air before it hits Takashi in the forehead. “Mediocre. Do better.”

“What a harsh critic,” Akabane sighs. “Don’t worry babe, I’ll make you the prettiest flower ever, watch me.”

Gakushuu blinks impassively. “Sure,” he says. 

Which is why it doesn’t come as a shock when the next essay draft Akabane hands him is in the form of an overly-elaborate paper tulip. Gakushuu doesn’t break eye contact as he unfurls the petals and pulls apart the folds. He skims through it and makes a distasteful face, and when he looks up Akabane is frowning at him. 

“When I said write an essay, I didn’t mean write an essay,” Gakushuu says, “it’s too structural, rigid. Don’t think about it as giving a lecture on values and principles. Imagine you’re having a conversation with someone, an intimate conversation, a junior perhaps? And they’re asking you handled your middle school years. You wouldn’t talk like this.”

“Isn’t a conversation too informal?” Akabane wrinkles his nose. 

“I’m not asking you to swear into the microphone,” Gakushuu sighs longsufferingly, “maybe don’t say, in this essay I will-”

“It’s a meme, you uncultured walnut,” Akabane snatches the papers from him. 

“Oh no, my flower,” Gakushuu deadpans. “But seriously. Talk to your 3-E classmates about it. Sit down, reminisce, record your verbal conversations if you have to use them as reference. Turn all references into assassination about… extracurriculars. I don’t know, say you had class sports.” 

“You’re a bitch,” Akabane informs him cheerfully. “See you tomorrow sweetie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's it so far?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg you guys, i did something horrible

“You know,” Akabane says, sprawled spread-eagle on Gakushuu’s bed where he had staked claim to, like Gakushuu letting him come over one time meant a standing invitation for anytime Akabane felt antsy in his own home. Gakushuu's feeling a little irked about it but Karma looked like a kicked puppy when Gakushuu was about to shut the door on him, so here they were.

Gakushuu’s mean, but he’s not quite mean enough to kick puppies.

“What?” Gakushuu asks.

Akabane stays quiet for a beat or two. Then he says, “do you like cats?”

Gakushuu blinks. “I’m okay with cats,” he says, “why?”

“How about dogs?” Akabane asks, “I’m not sure if you’re a dog person or a cat person. You seem like a cat person at first glance but I can also see you as a dog person, I don’t know.”

Gakushuu frowns. “I don’t have particular feelings about dogs or cats,” he aquises, narrows his eyes, “is there a reason you’re asking, or am I just going to assume that the purpose of the question eludes both of us?” Maybe Akabane read his mind and picked up the thread on puppies. He really hopes Akabane can't read minds.

“Sometimes people ask you questions without malicious intent, just to get to know you better,” Akabane drawls, “are you always this paranoid?”

Gakushuu frowns, again. “I’m not paranoid.”

“You are,” Akabane insists, and suddenly it sounds less like a jest than it did seconds prior and Gakushuu’s uncomfortable.

“I’m not,” Gakushuu repeats, softer. He turns back to his work, aware of Akabane’s piercing gaze on his back, and finally Akabane says again, “so, dogs or cats?”

Gakushuu doesn’t know why he bothers mulling over the question as long as he did, but he finally shrugs. “Dogs, I guess.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Akabane says, “that’s nice. I’m more of a cat person myself.”

Something in Akabane’s voice makes Gakushuu turn around to look at him. “Oh?”  

“Cats are nice,” Akabane shrugs, “they sleep a lot.” It’s not all what he wants to say.

Gakushuu tilts his head. “Why don’t you like dogs?”

“They’re too,” Akabane starts, stops. 

Gakushuu waits. Akabane seems to be collecting his thoughts, deciding between whether or not to say something, and Gakushuu feels like this is an oddly intimate moment, for a normal conversation with a strange turn.

“They’re too trusting,” Akabane finally says, staring up at the ceiling, “they love and love and then they get their heart broken.” He sounds wistful, almost, and Gakushuu feels his heart clench. 

“That’s sad,” he comments quietly. 

“I don’t… not like dogs,” Akabane admits, “they’re… friendly. They make you feel welcome.”

“Dogs can be hurt,” Gakushuu says, “they can lose their trust, if they’re abandoned. They don’t always keep running back.”

“I suppose not,” Akabane says. He closes his eyes.

Gakushuu purses his lips, and thinks.

“Dogs or cats,” he says, “whether or not they love unconditionally, whether or not they trust first and doubt second. I think it’s… admirable, to be able to love like that, to be loved like that.”

It must have been the right thing to say, or something, because Akabane turns and smiles gently at Gakushuu, eyes soft. Gakushuu feels minutely uncomfortable, he’s not sure when the last time someone looked at him with such an expression. Akabane is all hard edges and rough jabs and suddenly it’s like the lines smoothened out, and Gakushuu feels odd about it. 

Akabane laughs, and he shuts his eyes again, and the conversation is over. Gakushuu shakes it off and goes back to his work. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn't kill a man, don't worry. HAHA okay see you soon! Let me know if you guys have ideas/prompts because I'm feeling antsy


	9. Chapter 9

They don’t talk about the conversation. Akabane delivers a second draft via paper plane Monday during math, which is confiscated and then returned by a very perplexed Hachiho-sensei, who surely didn’t expect an essay from the student who spends more time colouring in the shapes of their trigonometry diagrams with highlighter than trying to solve the question.

“I thought you would be giving the speech, Asano,” she remarks casually after class, when she hands the creased paper back to him.

“The principal decided to let Akabane give the speech,” Gakushuu shrugs, trying to seem unaffected by it. He pulls his magnanimous face on and says, “I think it’s great. Having an ex-E-Class student attain first and give the school address can really boost morale for the weaker classes and encourage everyone to work harder.”

“That’s very thoughtful,” Hachiho-sensei says, although her smile is slightly strained. Elitism is very prevalent in this school, and most people don’t hide their prejudices as well as Gakushuu. Akabane being infamous for all the wrong reasons among school staff doesn’t help matters much, but Gakushuu has to acknowledge that he’s street and book smart, even if he likes using his knowledge for all the nefarious reasons.

Not that Gakushuu doesn’t, but he keeps that part of him well hidden from the public, unlike Akabane who wears “legally dubious pranks and morally ambiguous antics” like a headband.

It’s his father’s own creation, the little bubble of survival-of-the-fittest. Gakushuu’s messed up, he knows that. He doesn’t want the other kids in this school to be. 

“I think it’s great that we’re bringing down the 3-E classroom back to main campus,” Gakushuu blabbers on, adding a little bounce to his words, “back in middle school, collaboration within the classes was a challenge because they were so separated from the others, and the E-Class had to spend extra time and effort to travel up and down the hill instead of focusing on their studies, but with them back down in main campus, student council can include them in more activities and hold more study sessions to help them.”

“Oh,” Hachiho-sensei’s eyes widen, “I-”

“Don’t you think it’s sad that they were so detached from us?” Gakushuu continues insistently, “it took so much effort to convince them to participate in school sports with us.” That, technically, wasn’t a lie? 

“That does seem problematic,” Hachiho-sensei mutters, “but-”

Gakushuu puts on the puppy eyes and pouts and says, “I felt so bad during graduation, I was a horrible council president, if they were going through everything with their… teacher, and no one noticed it, not even myself, especially when I was trying so hard to get them to open up and join us in our school events. How much were we excluding them from us when none of us knew what they were going through for the entire year, an actual monster that could have ended the world, teaching them. It must have been horrible, for some fifteen year old kids who had to shoulder that burden.”

That does the trick, and Hachiho-sensei’s expression turns guilty. “You’re… right, we were too neglectful towards them, weren’t we,” she says, biting her lip, “oh dear, the poor children.”

“I’m glad the system has changed,” Gakushuu says. Final nail in the coffin, metaphorically.

“I’m… glad too,” Hachiho-sensei says, and she means it.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG I'm so exhausted. I need a nap.

Akabane’s second draft… made sense, yet didn’t. It felt casual, yet intimate, full of references that wouldn’t quite resonate with an audience without prior context to any of the 3-E shenanigans, and Gakushuu thinks he took his advice of recording a conversation a little too literally. 

“Still a no?” Akabane says morosely over the phone.

“Still a no,” Gakushuu says. “I don’t understand it.”

“3-E thought it was good,” Akabane mutters.

“But you’re not giving the speech to 3-E,” Gakushuu points out.

Akabane hums. 

“Maybe… talk less about assassination?” Gakushuu suggests. 

“I didn’t once mention any assassination,” Akabane argues.

“You were alluding to it the entire speech,” Gakushuu says. “Don’t think about assassination at all.”

“That’s what we did!” Akabane sounds exasperated, “you sure I can’t go up there and say fuck authority for 10 minutes straight?”

“No,” Gakushuu says. “That would be hilarious but I’ll kill you myself.”

Akabane grumbles something intelligible. Gakushuu skims the paper again. “The part where you talked about class bonding and teamwork,” Gakushuu says, “having a common goal to aim for with your class, makes everyone work harder and strive to improve, while helping each other.” He pauses, “I like the message. You should take out the part about the-”

“Money, yeah,” Akabane says. 

Gakushuu thinks. Then, “did you really get 10 million yen?”

“We’re still working out the fine print in the contract,” Akabane mutters, then does an unnecessarily high-pitched voice in what Gakushuu supposes is a mockery of a government official, “oh, technically the target would have died anyways without your interference, the beam was foolproof! Blah blah blah.”

Gakushuu snickers. “Not like any government would hand out 10 million dollars just like that.”

“Hey, maybe you should get your dad to talk to them,” Akabane suggests, “pull his weird brainwashing thing and get our money for us.”

“He already squeezed so much money out of their pockets,” Gakushuu mutters, “secrecy tax, my ass-”

“Really?” Akabane sounds way too interested, “how much?”

“I don’t know,” Gakushuu rolls his eyes, “several million?”

“The hell?” Akabane sounds awed, “I’m impressed and terrified.”

“The world is,” Gakushuu sighs. He sets the phone down and places it on speaker, then starts changing.

There’s a pause. Then, “are you stripping?” 

Gakushuu turns red, even though there’s no one else to see it. And he double checks, the phone is very much still on voice call and not video. “I’m just changing out of my uniform,” he hisses.

“Did you just get home?” Akabane sounds way too shocked.

“Yeah,” Gakushuu says. He pulls a shirt over his head, but actually hesitates at his pants.

“What do you even do in school?” Akabane says.

Gakushuu pauses. After inducing Hachiho-sensei’s reluctant change of heart, he’d spent the better part of the afternoon preaching about respect and love and sugar and spice to whichever authority figure would listen, with the innocent and earnest student council president act he’d perfected for 3 years, at which his father always looked amused when his subordinates are charmed.

Not that he was going admit that out loud.

“I was studying,” Gakushuu says mildly.

“Nerd,” Akabane says.

“Whatever,” Gakushuu dismisses.


	11. Chapter 11

Gakushuu finds himself re-reading Akabane’s speech. It’s not a particularly good one, still, and he doesn’t have quite enough context for it, but it’s strangely captivating and has a unique voice to it. After school on Tuesday he wanders and finds himself standing outside a cafe far too familiar.

“A-Asano,” Isogai fumbles with his tray, “h-hi!”

Gakushuu looks at him, down at his paper, “do you have time to talk?”

“T-talk?” Isogai blinks owlishly, “Uh, my shift ends at 5.”  

“I’ll wait,” Gakushuu inclines his head. “What do you recommend?”

Isogai recovers quickly and beams like on autopilot. “Their lemon drizzle cake is amazing,” he enthuses. At 5 Isogai slides into the seat across Gakushuu, smiling nervously. Gakushuu hands him Akabane’s speech, and Isogai reads through the entire thing in silence and emerges from the other end with slightly mistier eyes.

“This is,” Isogai says, voice heavy with emotion.

Gakushuu takes a slow sip of his tea.

“His speech,” Isogai says, eyes glittering, “Karma told us about it.” 

“What do you think?” Gakushuu asks, voice without judgement.

“It’s… nice,” Isogai says. He folds the paper neatly along it’s creases and sets it back down in front of Gakushuu. “Is that what you came to talk to me about?”

“I thought it would be helpful to get a second opinion,” Gakushuu acquiesces, although he does not say he didn’t mean to seek Isogai out in the first place. “You have a far more personal perspective on this. I understand the broad message of whatever Akabane is talking about, but I’m lacking in context.”

“It’s… very Karma,” Isogai thinks, “but yes, very, uhm, relatable, for me. Not so for everyone else outside of 3-E, I presume.”

Asano doesn’t unfold the letter, he’d read through it enough times to memorize the bulk of it. “Did you guys really get poisoned?” He finally asks.

Isogai grimaces, slightly. “We did.”

Gakushuu thinks, very briefly, of the inter-class fundraising competition they had and his father’s suggestion of poisoning 3-E’s restaurant food, and makes a face. “That must have sucked.”

“It did,” Isogai says. There’s a pause, then he says, “you should probably tell Karma not to bring it up.”

“Yep,” Gakushuu agrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha omg my updates have become more sporadic, sorry about that. See you soon!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update! What am I doing?

Akabane thrusts the annotated paper in Gakushuu’s face, waving it with an incredulous expression.

“What?” Gakushuu says, irritably.

“This is Isogai’s handwriting,” Akabane says in something Gakushuu can only describe as awe but is not quite, “you graded my essay. You graded my essay, with Isogai.”

“And?” Gakushuu raises an eyebrow.

“I didn’t know you two were friends,” Akabane says, settling into the seat across Gakushuu.

“What about it?” Gakushuu says mildly.

“Nothing about it,” Akabane says, stretching. “Just wondering, I guess.” Then, “are we friends, Asano?”

Gakushuu pauses in his worksheet and furrows his brows, unsure of where the question suddenly came from. Akabane is watching him curiously, and the question sounded light and innocent, but Gakushuu thinks back on the conversation they had last week. 

The amount of people Gakushuu considered friends could be counted in one hand, regardless of the inclusion of Akabane. Gakushuu doesn’t have to think hard before his heart reluctantly agrees that he and Akabane are indeed friends, not that he’d ever say that aloud.

Akabane’s gaze flickers from the paper in Gakushuu’s hand, to his own, uncertainly. There’s an analogy in this somewhere.  Gakushuu knows how to connect the dots, and draw parallel lines, and Akabane is as volatile as a… something volatile, Gakushuu supposes. Mercury. 

“Don’t ask stupid questions, idiot,” Gakushuu huffs. Akabane smiles at him, eyes crinkling, and Gakushuu feels like the proud owner of a bad-tempered cat, if said cat just hopped onto his lap on it’s own accord. 

“Aww, you love me,” Akabane teases.

“I do not,” Gakushuu sighs. 

“Sugar pie,” Akabane coos. 

Gakushuu glares. “Why are you here?”

“I came to spend time with you,” Akabane says like it’s supposed to be obvious, “because we’re friends.”

“We’re going out for lunch later,” Gakushuu says, “you can pick.”

“You always let me pick!” Akabane whines.

“Are you seriously complaining about getting the choice?”

“Choosing things requires brain energy,” Akabane sighs dramatically. He slumps over the table and blinks up with wide eyes, and Gakushuu feels an incoming headache, and he doesn’t have enough, what phrase did Akabane use again? Brain energy, to decipher Akabane’s derailed train of thought.

“Curry,” Gakushuu decides.

“I thought you didn’t like spicy things,” Akabane says innocently, and it takes the rest of Gakushu’s depleted brain energy to not stab Akabane in the face with his pen. 

“There’s a difference between eating curry because I want curry, and drinking wasabi up my milkshake.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHA hmmm where am I going with this?


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I'm so sleepy. I took a nap today.

“Guys, I did it,” Koyama says excitedly, slamming a lunchbox onto the table between them. Gakushuu eyes the box with distrust.

“What?” Ren says warily. 

“I baked,” Koyama beams. He opens the container to reveal a batch of cookies, that looked innocently edible. But if one year of, friendship, with Akabane has taught Gakushuu anything, it’s that looks can be deceiving. Araki makes a hum of disbelief and snaps a photograph of the cookies.

“Koyama, I love you, but I’m not going to be the first one to try it,” Seo says seriously.

“Come on, you guys,” Koyama whines. Gakushuu wonders if he should try one, but he’s not sure if he would risk his tastebuds. Then again, he really doubts Koyama put anything horrible into the mix, and at the very worst he might taste overly bitter or strangely salty cookies, not a full mouthful of whatever Akabane spiked his food with.

Speaking of.

“Akabane,” Gakushuu calls out. From his table, Akabane looks over quizzically, as does a few other students sitting around in the cafeteria. Gakushuu nods him over and Akabane saunters up with his hands in his pockets.

Gakushuu takes a cookie from Koyama’s lunchbox and holds it out. “Try this.”

Akabane doesn’t bother moving his hands, just leans down and takes the bite of cookie from Gakushuu’s hand, and chews thoughtfully. 

“Well?” Ren demands.

“A little burnt around the edges,” Akabane says, “it’s really bland.”

At that, Ren and Seo eagerly grab a cookie from the container, and Araki gives Koyama a slap on the back. Koyama preens a little.

“Subpar,” Akabane concludes, but just-okay cookies were a compliment compared to the disaster of the thursday night of last week, when Ren’s mom had actually screamed when she came home and found her son on the kitchen counter and swiping at the ceiling with a mop, and Seo guarding the unplugged oven from Koyama while perched on the coffee table.  

“What flavor is this?” Seo says.

Koyama pauses, thinks. Shrugs. “Cookie flavor?”

“You didn’t add anything to this?” Ren says, “nothing at all? Is it a plain butter cookie? Sugar cookie? Vanilla?”

“Honestly a nothing cookie tastes better than a whatever we were making last week cookie,” Araki comments, the same time Koyama shrugs again and says, “I don’t know, it’s just cookie. Flour, egg, butter, water. Was I supposed to add anything else?”

“I notice you didn’t say sugar,” Ren waves a chopstick in the air menacingly. 

“I didn’t want to mix it up with salt,” Koyama insists.

Akabane wrinkles his nose. “Gross,” he mutters, “can you bake, Asano?”

“Yes,” Gakushuu says. He takes a bite of Akabane’s unfinished cookie, and makes a face.

“You know, salt cookies actually taste great,” Akabane says, “if you know how to make them.”

“Huh,” Gakushuu says, “and I suppose this means you know how to make them?”

Akabane hums, grins, and strolls away.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is, slow burn? A burn, slow?

“Hey babe,” Akabane greets, dropping a container onto Gakushuu’s lap.

Gakushuu doesn’t think he needs to open it. “Salt cookies,” he guesses.

“Brown butter sea salt,” Akabane nods. “Try one.”

Gakushuu eyes the cookies suspiciously.

Akabane looks amused. “There’s no wasabi,” he says. Akabane bites off part of a cookie and offers the rest to Gakushuu, who deliberates his existence and Akabane’s trustworthiness and says, “fuck it,” and takes a bite of the cookie. It’s salty sweetness and melt-in-your-mouth amazing and Gakushuu’s eyes widen. 

Akabane bounces on his toes. “Well?”

“It’s adequate,” Gakushuu mutters, then shoves the rest of the cookie in his mouth.

Akabane beams. “Thanks, Shuu.”

Gakushuu chews and swallows before he says, “don’t call me that.” Then bites into another cookie. 

Akabane snags a cookie from the container and pops it into his mouth, humming satisfiedly to himself. He makes it to his seat just as Aiyamoto-sensei walks in, and Gakushuu stashes the container in his bag next to his bento and forgets about it until lunch, when he pulls out both.

“What’s that?” Ren asks.

Gakushuu doesn’t know why he suddenly feels defensive, but he does. “Just some food,” he says, aiming for casual.

“I saw that this morning,” Seo narrows his eyes, “Akabane gave it to you. There are cookies in that.”

“Cookies?” Koyama makes grabby hands at the container, and Gakushuu eyes them testily. “Akabane insulted my cookies, I need to see if he can back himself up.”

“Anyone can make better cookies than you,” Seo snorts, then, “are they good, though?”

“Let us try one,” Araki says.

Gakushuu frowns, but he opens up the container. The cookies are cool now but no less amazing, and Gakushuu relates when the four affirms the deliciousness, but he quickly shuts the container when they turn their eyes back on it.

“Come on,” Koyama groans, “one more.”

“Cookie,” Ren says, eyes wide.

“Eat your own lunch,” Gakushuu retorts. He takes a bite of his bento, and the four groan dramatically. 

“Boss won’t share,” Seo laments.

“Of course not,” Araki says glumly, “Akabane gave them to him.”

Gakushuu looks up sharply. “What is that supposed to mean.”

Seo kicks Araki under the table. Gakushuu glares. Koyama coughs.

“What Araki means,” Ren says, holding his hands up placatingly, “is that, uh, Akabane gave them to you, not to us. So it’d be, um, unfair, if we took them. Because it’s a gift. To you.”

Gakushuu blinks impassively at Ren once, twice. Ren squirms. They’re up to something, Gakushuu knows, and he’ll get it out of Ren later, without the other three acting as a distraction. They exchange looks they don’t think Gakushuu notices when he nods and goes back to his food, but Gakushuu does, of course he does.

Seo kicks Araki under the table again. Yep, they’re definitely up to something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sigh. How is everyone doing? What should I write next?


	15. Chapter 15

“It’s next week,” Gakushuu says, “you ready?”

“No,” Akabane says cheerily. “You sure it’s not too late to talk your daddy out of this?”

“You’re welcome to try,” Gakushuu suggests again.

Karma groans over the line. There’s a rustling sound and a bang, then something that sounds like Akabane throwing himself onto his bed. “I’m going to take a nap.”

“You just woke up!” Gakushuu says incredulously, “it's 10am! No! Your speech!”

“Nap,” Akabane says.

“No!’ Gakushuu scolds. “Akabane!”

“Babe,” Akabane says, “come over? We can nap together.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Darling?” Sweetie?” Akabane cajoles, “honey-”

“I’ll work on your speech with you,” Gakushuu says, “we’re not sleeping together.” Then involuntarily turns red at his own misleading phrasing.

Akabane seems unphased, but there’s a lilt in his voice that tells Gakushuu he’ll be bringing it up later. “But you’ll come over?”

Gakushuu sighs. “Whatever.”

Akabane makes a happy noise on his end of the call. “Sleepover!”

“A hundred times no.”

“I’ll text you my address, but I know you already have it.”

Gakushuu finds a smile tugging at his lips. “Maybe,” he says. 

“See you!” Akabane says happily, and hangs up. Gakushuu throws his laptop into his bag, intent on getting at least some work done, and takes a bus to Akabane’s estate. Akabane throws the door open before Gakushuu even knocks, bouncing on his toes like a child.

“I saw you come by from the window,” Akabane says. He’s wearing an apron, and he has flour on his cheek.

Gakushuu kind of wants to clean it off, but that’s fucking weird, what the fuck. 

Akabane bounces all the way to his enormous kitchen, where Gakushuu can see the in-works of what seems to be a baking mishap. Except, he muses, given that this is Akabane, it seems to be more of a culinary success than a failure.

“I thought you were taking a nap,” Gakushuu says mildly.

“Yeah, but you’re coming over,” Akabane says, “and we’re friends.”

Gakushuu almost rolls his eyes just because, but Akabane sounds uncertain enough about it, and it makes Gakushuu hesitate at dismissing him. Gakushuu stare at Akabane, who’s watching him back with wariness, slowly stirring batter. Gakushuu knows he’s a private person by nature, and so is Akabane, he thinks, despite all the outward bubbliness he has. 

But, Gakushuu thinks, they are friends, Reluctantly. 

“Sure,” Gakushuu says. And he decides to roll his eyes anyways, but then flashes Akabane one of his least hostile smiles.

Akabane positively beams. It’s a little blinding, the way he radiates happiness. Gakushuu needs to invest in some shades if he’s going to continue with this friendship business.

“Here, try this,” Akabane says, sticking a large wooden spoon with batter out in Gakushuu’s face, and Gakushuu throws all thoughts of wasabi-laced foods out of the window and takes it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is this story thus far? The end approaches heheh. Will Karma actually give a speech? Will Gakushuu ever find out what the Big Five are up to? Will they /actually/ get together or will I make this the longest worst platonic-friendship slow burn ever? (I say slow-burn but this entire fic happens in the span of like, 3 weeks. I don't even know. I'm relying on an audience pre-imagined one year of context for this.)


	16. Chapter 16

Gakushuu cracks an egg into the frying pan and watches Akabane hum peacefully to his pot of soup.

“What are we making?” Gakushuu asks. He hands Akabane the spoon when the latter gestures to it, and watches him sip at the soup thoughtfully.

“Pass me some salt,” Akabane says, then, “lunch. Because /someone/ didn’t want to eat cookies as a meal.”

Akabane sounds put out. Gakushuu huffs in indignation. “Cookies are not a meal.”

“They can be,” Akabane insists. Said cookies are cooling on a rack, and Akabane snags one as he walks over to get to the spring onions. He takes a large bite and offers the rest to Gakushuu.

“Not bad,” Gakushuu says.

“Not bad?” Akabane looks offended, “this is the best. Not that you can do any better.”

“There’s always room for improvement,” Gakushuu says. He flips the omelette. 

Akabane watches him. Then. “that sounds like it should go in the speech.”

“Hm?” Gakushuu raises an eyebrow.

“The top class always thinks that since they’re top, there’s nowhere else to ascend and their abilities reach a plateau as a result of them no longer giving a fuck, just doing enough to keep their status as top.”

Gakushuu scowls. “I suppose,” he grumbles. Akabane’s not wrong about the elitism of the rest of his counterparts, and Gakushuu thinks he’s an exception because he definitely knows he needs to improve to beat his dad and thus constantly strives for it, but he’s reminded at his self-assurance in middle-school which cost him to lose the top position to the boy himself. 

Akabane pokes him on the cheek, and Gakushuu swats it away. Akabane retracts his hand, but says with a surprisingly gentle voice, “I didn’t mean you.”

Gakushuu glances up. Akabane is watching him with a oddly soft look on his face. It makes Gakushuu’s stomach flip weirdly. “I know,” he says, but his voice comes out less assured than it’s supposed to be. 

Akabane smiles. Then, “watch the eggs.”

Gakushuu immediately moves the pan from the heat. “Oh fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bring to you two chapters in short succession because I want to bring up this concept: Karma with dimples. That is all.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hullo!

“Babe,” Akabane says.

“Hm?” Gakushuu doesn’t look up from his computer. He frowns at his last sentence, then deletes it. When Akabane doesn’t reply, Gakushuu looks up.

Akabane is staring at Gakushuu across the dining table, face red. They look at each other for a long moment, Gakushu furrows his brows and Akabane continues staring unnervingly.

“What?” Gakushuu asks, irritable.

Akabane turns redder. He looks down at his paper.

Gakushuu frowns. “Give me that.” 

Akabane hands the paper over. Gakushuu looks it over and says, “that’s good.”

Akabane drums the table. “Is it?”

“Better than your past attempts,” Gakushuu jokes. Akabane cracks a smile, and takes the paper back. He starts making some annotations in the margins, then pulls out a fresh sheet to write on. Gakushuu briefly wonders why he doesn’t use his laptop like everyone else, but he supposes it’s the whole paper book versus kindle debate that he fought with Ren over and doesn’t feel like getting into it. The only time Akabane typed out part of his speech was at Gakushuu’s request anyhow.

They work in silence for a bit, before Akabane stretches and says, “want to take a nap?”

Gakushuu blinks. He checks the time, to see an hour has passed. “It’s 3.”

“Perfect nap time,” Akabane says. “Let’s go to my room. Bring your stuff.” 

Gakushuu leaves his bag at the table but carries his laptop up, and Akabane’s room is a chaotic mess, much like the boy himself. The desk is so cluttered Gakushuu wonders how Akabane can get any work done, but the bed is clean so Gakushuu sits on the edge of it, and Akabane jumps onto his bed like a toddler. 

“Nights,” Akabane says. Gakushuu quirks his lips into a smile. Akabane rolls himself into a blanket burrito and buries his face in the sheets. A red mess of hair is popping out of the burrito, Akabane’s cheeks are squished against his blankets, and his eyes are bright against the dim lighting in the room. Gakushuu marvels a little at the side of Akabane he’s sure no one else sees; not the tired side, everyone has seen Akabane take naps in class to the chargin of the teachers. It's the soft part of Akabane, yawning and revealing one way-too-sharp canine, and trusting that Gakushuu wouldn’t stab him in his nap.

Akabane falls asleep easily, breath evening out. Gakushuu finishes off his essay and proofreads it, then sends it to Guro-sensei. He opens up the email from Amaya-sensei, asking him to time himself on a diagnostic paper she’s planning to test the new batch of students on. 

Akabane makes a noise, drawing Gakushuu’s attention.

Akabane is still fast asleep, although the tight burrito he was originally in has some undone, and he’s splayed across the bed, face turned towards him. Gakushuu traces the soft glow his hair has with the light that creeps in through the gaps in his curtains, the line of light along the bridge of Akabane’s nose and the roundness of his cheeks, and the way his long eyelashes brushes against them.

Akabane is… pretty, Gakushuu thinks. Stretched languidly like a snoozing cat. A conversation he had with Akabane about cats and dogs comes to mind.

Gakushuu has an appreciation for beautiful things, and not that he will ever admit it out loud but Akabane is one of something beautiful, especially in soft lighting such as this. It’s peaceful, the way he loses his snark and sass in his sleep, face so calm that Gakushuu’s almost envious, an expression that makes Gakushuu long for something he’d lost a long time ago.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahah hello! Going to start randomly posting short ficlets I have time to write because I'm super bored right now.

Gakushuu stares at Akabane for the next half an hour like a fucking creep, falls off the bed when Akabane wakes up, and vehemently denies watching Akabane sleep.

“That’s creepy,” Gakushuu insists, and inwardly suffers in shame.

“You should have just slept too,” Akabane says, stretching. The cat analogy comes back to Gakushuu.

“I’m not sleeping on the same bed as you,” Gakushuu says.

Akabane frowns. “Why?” He demands, and Gakushuu is taken aback by the sudden hostility in his voice.

“What do you mean why?” Gakushuu matches his glare, “I just don’t want to, it’s weird.”

Akabane opens his mouth, then shuts it, and frowns harder. “Whatever,” he mutters.

Akabane tumbles out of bed. Gakushuu’s fingers itch to straighten the rumpled sheets, but he thinks he’d overstepped somehow. Gakushuu follows Akabane to the living room, where the boy is messing with his bedhead and looking around listlessly.

“...Akabane?” Gakushuu asks.

Akabane turns around, visibly distressed. He runs his hand through his hair again, then, “Asano, be honest with me. Do I make you uncomfortable?”

Gakushuu stops short. It’s not like Akabane to worry about something like this, his favourite past time was making Gakushuu annoyed with him, and he’d never had any problems with overstepping Gakushuu’s level of tolerance before. But Gakushuu supposes they’re friends right now, and Akabane seems genuinely bothered, so his concern must stem from something deeper. “Where did this come from?”

“I-” Akabane starts, pauses, then stares at his feet.

Gakushuu waits.

“...all,” Akabane scuffs his toes, “the, uhm, petnames. The teasing.”

Gakushuu takes a deep breath. “Is this about you being gay?”

“Is this abou- what? What the fuck?” Akabane gapes at him angrily.

“Sorry,” Gakushuu shrugs a little awkwardly, “am I wrong? I didn’t mean to presume.”

“No, I mean,” Akabane presses his palms to his face and groans. “Why would you say that? You mean you knew this entire time?”

Gakushuu furrows his brows. “That you were gay?”

Akabane peeks out through his fingers. “Was I obvious?” He asks meekly.

“No, I’m just really good at reading people,” Gakushuu says. He relaxes, knowing Akabane wasn’t offended, just embarrassed. Gskushuu can see the red tips of his ears behind his hair. “You were dating Shiota, right?”

“N-Nagisa? No, I was not! Jesus!”

“Oh,” Gakushuu says, “well, you two would have made a cute couple.”

“Uhm, thanks I guess. But- wait, you knew I was gay and you let me, uh, call you those petnames? You weren’t afraid of me hitting on you?”

Gakushuu cocks his head. “Why would I be? Were you hitting on me?”

Akabane puffs his cheeks out. “No.”

“Then there’s nothing to be concerned about,” Gakushuu says. For some reason, Akabane seems even more put out, and Gakushuu can’t figure out why. He adds, “for the record, I don’t care about your sexuality. I just don’t like sleeping next to someone I’m not romantically involved in, it’s weird.”

Akabane lowers his hands slowly, regards Gakushuu for a long moment, and then grins. “Prude.”

Gakushuu turns red. “I am not.” But he’s glad to see Akabane over his dilemma and back to his normal self.

Akabane laughs, but then he sobers up again and says seriously, “you’re really okay with me being gay?”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. “Yes, I am. So what if you like it up the ass? I don’t give a fuck who you want to fuck.” He pauses for a beat, watch Akabane have an internal debate with himself, then tacks on, “I’m bisexual, just so you know.”

Akabane blinks at him, then smiles genuinely, breathtakingly. “Thanks.”

Gakushuu thinks for a moment, then says, “do you want a hug?”

Akabane’s jaw drops. “What?”

“A hug,” Gakushuu says, wincing a little, “you seem like you need one.” He opens his arms. Akabane lurches forward and wraps his arms around Gakushuu’s torso, squeezing tightly. Gakushuu slowly folds his arms gently across Akabane’s back.

“Just to be clear,” Gakushuu says, Akabane’s face buried in the crook of his neck, “this is a one-time deal.”

“Sure,” Akabane says, voice full with emotion and amusement, but he hugs back tighter, and Gakushuu lets him.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you soon!


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A super short chapter!

When Toyu came out to Gakushuu in the last month of middle school and asked him out, Gakushuu declined. 

“I didn’t know you were gay,” Gakushuu comments mildly, over the cup of coffee Toyu offered to buy him.

“I don’t like telling people about it,” he had said, blushing, “they always make it weird.”

“Oh?” Gakushuu asks.

“Boys start going, oh were you hitting on me? Were you checking me out? And people start avoiding you in locker rooms,” Toyu say, flustered, “even guys you thought were your friends start acting like they’re too good for you. Everytime I hugged someone or patted them on the back they start going, “hey, I’m not gay,” like come on, man! We’ve been friends for the last two years."

“And you were pretty intimidating, I won't lie, in the way that hot people are too scary to approach,” Toyu admits, “you were, well, everything. And had so many girls fawning over you I thought there was no way you were gay.”

“What made you change your mind?” Gakushuu asks, curious.

“Well,” Toyu shrugs, “figured if I don’t try at least once, I’d be a coward. And you were so nice I figured you wouldn’t try to bully me about it, and if you did, we have about two weeks of school left, so.”

Gakushuu smiles at him. “I’m actually bi.”

“Oh wow,” Toyu’s eyes widen, “so it’s not my dick that’s the problem, it’s my personality.” But his tone is light and teasing.

Gakushuu laughs. “Sorry, sorry. You’re a really nice guy. Just…”

“Not your type,” Toyu says, “thanks for being so cool about this.”

“Thanks for finding me attractive,” Gakushuu says.

“Man, you’ll have to thank the whole school for that,” Toyu laughs, “you’re too damn cute.”

Gakushuu throws up a peace sign and winks, just for fun. Toyu grins. 

“Which high school are you applying to?” Gakushuu asks, “Kunugigaoka?”

“I’ve taken the entrance exam, but I’m trying out for several others upstate,” he says, “see how I fare, I guess.”

“Good luck,” Gakushuu says sincerely, “I wish you the best.”

“You too,” Toyu says, “maybe when I see you again you’ll have a guy or a girl hanging off your arm.”

“I hope so too,” Gakushuu jokes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The speech approaches... hehehe. I'm loving Gakushuu and Gakuhou interactions. I need more fics about my favorite dysfunctional duo.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It approaches!!

“Lunch?” Akabane says, dropping in front of the seat across Gakushuu.

“It’s Monday,” says Gakushuu.

“Yes, but school ends tomorrow, which means we won’t see each other Wednesday. And my speech is tomorrow, so take this as my last meal.”

“You’re being dramatic,” Gakushuu says. “You’ll do fine. I’ve been helping you, after all.”

“Thanks,” Akabane says dryly, “but lunch?” 

Gakushuu’s gaze flickers to the Virtuosos, egging Takashi on with contraband alcohol that they’re not supposed to have. Whatever, it’s the second last day of school, it’s not like he’s not going to tell the principal. The alcohol is his anyways. He’s sure the four won’t miss him for one lunch.

And Gakushuu’s pretty sure Akabane’s in need of special friendship reassurance, or something like that. Gakushuu knows he panicked for weeks before he thought, “who the fuck cares what my /teacher/ thinks of me?” after which he screamed about liking boys as much as girls at his father, whom proceeded to panic as much as Gakushuu had done and buy half a library’s worth of literature on how to deal with your LGBT child.

The apple never falls far from the tree, Gakushuu supposes.

“Sure,” he says.

Akabane beams at him. “Let’s get triangle foods.”

Gakushuu stares, incredulously, wondering how Akabane’s mind works. “...Onigiri?”

“Triangle food,” Akabane nods to himself more than anything, and ambles off.

Gakushuu turns to Jyuko, whose nursing a bottle of clear liquid Gakushuu doesn’t think is water, and looking woozy. Whoever who decided to give the high schoolers essentially nothing but free periods until the last day of school should reevaluate their schedule planning skills.

His father. The principal sucks, and should definitely evaluate his planning skills, and reschedule his life.

“What the hell is triangle food?” Gakushuu asks.

Jyuko stares at him, sways in her seat a little, then shrugs and says, “pizza?”

Triangle food, as it turns out, isn’t anything more than ordinary foods cut into triangles. 

Akabane waves a pork cutlet cut into a triangle at Gakushuu. He’d apparently prepared two bento boxes for the occasion, like he was sure Gakushuu would wholeheartedly agree. 

Akabane is really good at cooking. There isn’t even wasabi in anything. 

“How are you feeling?” Gakushuu asks quietly. 

Akabane looks up at him and bites his lip. “Nervous,” he admits.

“It’d be fine,” Gakushuu says, although he’s not sure what he can offer. Speaking to a large crowd comes naturally to him, humble bragging and playing with words honed for years as with his erratic childhood with the principal. Akabane shrugs like he doesn’t really believe him. 

They eat in silence for a while, then Akabane shifts minutely. Gakushuu sets his chopsticks down. 

“3-E was,” Akabane says, curling his hands into fists, “we were, a lot of things. I know they won’t be there, but I’m… talking about, us, and I know I won’t actually be bringing up any of the stuff we really went through with each other but I don’t want to make a mess out of it.”

“You won’t,” Gakushuu says firmly, “I read your last draft. It was… good.”

Akabane sighs. “You know I can’t bullshit to a crowd like you can.”

Gakushuu frowns at him. “Then don’t bullshit. Speak the truth. Sure, you’re hiding a few things and twisting some scenarios a little, but all your emotions and growth stems from something that’s real, and all you have to do is bring a little bit of that out.”

Akabane smiles, and it doesn’t reach his eyes. “You always know what to say.”

Gakushuu nudges his calf  with his sneaker. “If anything goes wrong, just wing it. It’s what you’re best at, right?”

Akabane laughs a little. “Yeah.” 

Gakushuu picks up a triangular piece of seaweed, and pokes Akabane on the cheek with it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's... still approaching. Haha sorry I love dragging things out too much.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :o :o: o

Graduation day. Gakushuu squints up at the sunlight glaring through the windows, and around at the classroom where everyone is lazing around and chatting about nothing in particular, already making plans for the holidays. Akabane is noticeably absent. Hachiho-sensei, watching a video on her tablet with her earphones in and counting down the hours like everyone else is doing, doesn’t bother to glance up when Gakushuu gets out of his seat and leaves the room. Ren waves at him and goes back to animatedly flirting with Hano.

There are a few students milling around in the hallways, who nod in acknowledgement as Gakushuu makes eye contact with them. Gakushuu leaves the high school block and heads down to Kunugigaoka Middle School, where graduation activities are in full swing and he dodges cameras swinging around twice.

His father is speaking to someone who looks important. Gakushuu hops over a bunch of wires and politely waves to his juniors, signs a few yearbooks and then ducks behind the stairs and heads on backstage. As predicted, Akabane is sitting there looking anxious. He's chewing on a pen and skimming over his crumpled piece of paper. 

“What the hell are you wearing?” Gakushuu says, appalled. 

“What?” Akabane looks down at himself. "This is what I always wear.”

“Yes, that’s the problem,” Gakushuu wrinkles his nose. He ignores Akabane’s noise of protests and manhandles him out of the non-school approved blazer he wears, and shrugs out of his own. 

“Come on, we’re about the same size,” Gakushuu snaps, “are you trying to embarrass yourself and ruin this school's reputation? Do you know how many cameras are out there?”

“I remember,” Akabane says softly. 

Right. 3-E didn’t quite get the best treatment from paparazzi last graduation. 

Gakushuu opts to not say anything. He undoes his own tie and loops it over Akabane’s collar. Akabane lifts his chin, and Gakushuu’s suddenly aware of the slight difference in height the boy has over him and stews a little, but there’s no time for that. He buttons Akabane’s collar and pulls the tie up. Akabane makes a soft noise. 

“Stop moving,” Gakushuu says. He pulls the jacket tighter around Akabane’s shoulder and does up the buttons. The height is really getting to him, so he pushes Akabane down onto his chair and frowns at the mess that his hair is in, but he doesn’t have a comb or hair gel with him, and he doubts Akabane does. The principal’s office is too far away; Gakushuu could probably make it if he ran, but he doesn’t feel like going through the crowd or accosting his father for the key. So he just combs Akabane’s hair down with his fingers the best he can.

“G-gakushuu,” Akabane breathes. He looks up, eyes wide, and Gakushuu sucks in a breath for no reason at all. 

Gakushuu brushes Akabane’s hair from his eyes. They’re startlingly bright, and his lashes are longer than they have any right to be. “I didn’t say you could call me by my first name,” Gakushuu tells him. 

Akabane looks conflicted. “!-”

Gakushuu’s heart pounds, hard, for no reason at all. They seem impossibly close now, the distance between them practically nothing. But he doesn’t want to move away, the intimacy of the moment a crime to break, and Akabane’s eyes suddenly seem so impossibly large. 

“I should have made you get a haircut yesterday,” Gakushuu murmurs, and he futilely tries to tuck a bit of Akabane’s fringe behind his ear.  

Akabane shakes his head, and his hair falls in front of his eyes again. 

Gakushuu’s lips quirk up a bit. “Your hair is as untamable as you,” he says. 

“Gakushuu-uh, shit, sorry, Asano-”

“Whatever,” Gakushuu says. “Call me Gakushuu. It’s fine.”

Akabane looks like he wants to say something, he looks like he wants to say a lot of things, really. But he doesn’t, he just closes his hand around Gakushuu’s wrist and stares up at him, face desperate with such a strange emotion that Gakushuu can’t recognize, but wishes to understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :O :O :O
> 
> Haha okay I see some people are wondering what I'm going to make Karma say for the speech. But the thing is... I'm... not? No you see I'm Karma and I'm horrible at speeches and I can't bring myself to write this. I want everyone to pretend it was gorgeous without my shitty writing butchering it up (and also I cringe at myself whenever I try to start typing so it's a no-go.) But you, my lovely readers, (and you've been a wonderful audience thus far and I love you all) can write this for me! Audience participation points! I'm joking. But if you want to I'm not opposed. Write the essay you've always wanted to write on how much character growth you think 3-E has had. A little miffed that this site doesn't have a pm function but we can make it work ;) Haha okay I'm just kidding (not really) but hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter hmm

Akabane leaves to wait at the curtain wings and Gakushuu hangs around backstage, congratulating everyone passes by him and making polite small talk. He exchanges social media accounts with a few more bold juniors as the others giggle behind their certificates, and then Gakushuu sees his father watching him with a look that Gakushuu only recently learnt to recognize as fondness.

“Student council president,” Gakuhou greets.

“Principal,” Gakushuu says, just as cordially, then Gakuhou chuckles a little and pats Gakushuu once on the shoulder and just stops short of a second pat. Yep, Gakushuu agrees, they’re not quite there yet.

“You and Akabane seem close,” Gakuhou remarks, taking a sip from his tumbler. 

“We’re friends,” Gakushuu says, eyes narrowing, wondering if his father saw him and Akabane half an hour before.

“Sure seemed friendly,” Gakuhou agrees, and yep, he did.

Gakushuu flips him off, and motions for the tumbler. Gakuhou hands it to him and says, “at least he’s better than those little followers you call your friends. What is the name for you five? Virtuosos?”

Gakushuu makes a face. “I hate oolong,” he mutters. 

“You know that’s all I drink,” Gakuhou rolls his eyes, but he does pull out another tumbler from satan’s own invisible floating storage box and passes it over and yes, green tea. Finally.

“He’s more annoying than them, that’s for sure,” Gakushuu snorts quietly. From the muffled words, it should be the graduating valedictorian’s speech. Akabane should be on next.

“But you seem to stand him more than them,” his father teases.

Gakushuu feels his face heating up. “What are you going on about?” He says into the drink.

“You’re so stupid,” his father snickers, but it sounds more affectionate than mocking, a first for them. They’re having many firsts, it seems, since this time past year. Graduation period affects him more than he would like to think it does, watching the news report at midnight on the couch and getting into a yelling match with his father, spending a sleepless night going over every interaction he had with 3-E and then ringing every one of his stupid friends until they pick up his calls at four in the morning. Karasuma-sensei tired voice over the line in the morning, fishing 3-E out of the shark-infested pit that was the press and then immediately jumping back in himself, defending his father with claw tooth and nail and going against every venomous barb they’ve traded for the past 15 years, ringing up Isogai with a stilted apology.

There’s just the faintest of marks on his cheek now, that you couldn’t tell unless you were looking for it. Gakushuu presses his hand to it, and Gakuhou winces a little, and stares down at his own knuckles.

Gakushuu’s not bitter about it, he isn’t. He knows it’s his father’s roundabout way of voicing his disappointment for his grades, going behind his back and telling Akabane to give the school address that is usually done by the graduating valedictorian. He’s not bitter about it, but he says, with his finger digging into the side of his face where his father had busted his knuckles against a year ago and says, “why did you pick him instead of me?”

Gakuhou says, “you know why.”

Then again, there was Gakuhou’s sudden change of heart-

“Maybe I don’t,” Gakushuu says softly, “just tell me.”

The principal, his father, stays in deep thought for a long time. Then he finally says, gentlest Gakushuu has ever heard him, “coming out on top isn’t everything, and I’m sorry I never taught you that.”

Gakushuu laughs, bitterly.  He leans into his father’s side and rests his head against his shoulder. “You don’t deserve this school,” Gakushuu says, before his filter kicks in, before he can take it back. “You don’t deserve to remain a principal. You don’t even deserve to be a parent.”

The silence between them, then, becomes deafening. But there are a lot of firsts between them, and the cheers on the other side of the stage builds up and Gakushuu lets out a shuddering breath, and presses closer to Gakuhou, and stays. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't resists the Asanos.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so pretend there was an amazing speech. We skip past the motivation, the tears, the enraptured audience. Cue immediate scene after.

When Akabane bursts backstage, the applause grows louder. It doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. Gakushuu’s over by his side, and he finds himself grinning for something he’s not quite sure what yet, at the cacophony after Akabane’s exit or the words full of passion and their flawless delivery, or mirroring the brilliant smile on Akabane’s own face. 

Akabane takes Gakushuu’s wrist and pulls him along, and they leave through backstage’s many staircases and run across Kunugigaoka Middle’s empty halls. 

“Come on,” Akabane says, and he leads the way up the little mountain that the old 3-E’s classroom sat on. Akabane laughs, and gleefully rips up the script.

“You didn’t even use it,” Gakushuu says proudly.

“You made me memorize it,” Akabane grins back. He pulls the tie over his head and shrugs off Gakushuu’s jacket, and throws it down. Gakushuu would complain about mistreatment of his clothes, but he’s not quite in the mood. 

“Where’s my blazer?” Akabane says.

“Still backstage,” Gakushuu crosses his arms, “you were too excited to let me go back and grab it.”

“Ugh,” says Akabane, and flops down on the grass. He shuts his eyes. 

Gakushuu rolls his eyes, and sits down next to him. “We can go back and get it.”

Akabane doesn’t respond. He swings an arm over his face and makes a low humming noise, then says, “nap with me?”

“No,” Gakushuu responds. 

Akabane moves his arm to look up at Gakushuu. His eyes are glowing amber in the sunlight, and he’s squinting a little against the brightness, so Gakushuu shifts a little to cover Akabane‘s face with his shadow. They’re a deeper colour in the shade, contrasting nicely with his hair, once again covering his eyes. Gakushuu absently reaches over to push his fringe away.

Akabane’s hand shoots up, and he grasps Gakushuu’s wrist tightly. They stay like that for a while, Gakushuu kneeling in the grass and leaning over Akabane, fingers against his temple, Akabane with his lips pursed and left hand holding Gakushuu’s right. “Asano,” Akabane says, almost a whisper, “Gakushuu. Is this okay?”

Gakushuu’s breath catches in his throat. “I already said you can use my first name,” he says just as faintly, like he can’t trust his voice enough. 

“That’s not what I mean,” Akabane replies. He rolls his thumb arounds Gakushuu’s wrist, then palm, then clasps their hands together. Gakushuu follows the movement with his eyes, feeling it but not quite feeling it, trusting his sight to show him it’s real. “Is this okay?” He repeats. 

Gakushuu knows his palms are sweaty, but Akabane doesn’t seem to mind. “It’s okay,” he says. 

Akabane smiles at him, differently and prettily and soft and dangerous, then, and Gakushuu’s blushes and he somehow knows that this smile is reserved for him. Akabane curls their fingers together and presses the back of Gakushuu’s hand against his cheek. 

He should have figured this out much earlier, Gakushuu thinks in hindsight, the way his heart beat faster every time he looked into Akabane’s eyes, spending too long watching the sunlight catch in his hair and dust his cheeks, chasing his voice whenever Akabane called him, “babe.” 

“Call me Karma,” Akabane, no, Karma, says.

“Okay,” Gakushuu agrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha okay I would LOVE to end it here but there's ONE FINAL PART coming because I love Karushuu too much. Regard this as the official ending and the other part I'll post soon as some sort of post-credits scene.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hi! Final post-credits installment!

(“Wait, wait,” Gakushuu says, gently pushing Karma away, “you said you weren’t hitting on me.”

Karma makes a soft noise of protest at the loss of contact. He looks betrayed and says, “Well sweetie, I lied, you know what lying is, you do that more than me.”

Gakushuu stares, bewildered. “Why?”

Karma rolls his eyes. “I didn’t know you liked dudes. And hey, since we’re on the topic, you knew I liked guys all along, and you like guys too, and you just let me flirt with you all those time without saying anything? What was that about?”

Gakushuu opens his mouth, closes it. Then, “you were flirting?”

Karma throws his hands in the air, exasperated. “You’re so fucking stupid. I called you babe for six months.”

“He did call you babe for six months,” Araki points out later, after Karma stormed off in a huff and Gakushuu pats his hair down until it doesn’t look like someone had tugged at it for half an hour, and heads down the 3-E mountain.   

Gakushuu’s a little miffed. How did these four idiots figure it out before he did? He was supposed to be the smart one of the group.

“To be fair, boss,” Seo says, and Gakushuu turns his glare at him, “you were being really oblivious.”

“I thought he was just trying to get on my nerves,” Gakushuu mutters. 

“He tries to get on my nerves all the time,” Ren says, “and you don’t hear him calling me babe.”

“Or honey,” Koyama tacks on, “or darling, sweetie, baby, Shuu-”

Gakushuu leaves them to themselves in the cafeteria, ignoring their pealing laughter as he ducks under banners and heads towards the principal’s office. Gakuhou wordlessly motions to the folded lump of black fabric on his desk when Gakushuu walks in. It’s Karma’s blazer, and the principal stares at Gakushuu with an expression not unlike despair. “What?” Gakushuu snaps, irritably, when it’s clear his father’s dejected expression wasn’t going away soon.

“You’re all grown up,” Gakuhou says, shockingly despondent, “I just want to let you know that I’ll support you in whatever you do-”

Gakushuu grimaces. “Are you reading those stupid books again?”

“We never stop learning,” Gakuhou says, with too much of a straight face. Gakushuu marches over, reaches behind his father’s desk and messes up his paperwork to pull out a printout of an article about what to do when your gay son gets a boyfriend, and slowly rips it into two. Gakuhou looks distressed, so Gakushuu bolts.  

They meet at the front gates of Kunugigaoka High, Gakushuu with Karma’s blazer slung over his shoulder and Karma with his, and there are people watching them take up space on the pavement as they walk past.

“Tomorrow,” Karma says.

Gakushuu looks at him. “What about tomorrow?”

“I don’t see a reason to discontinue our tradition,” Karma says, voice casual, but there’s a light dusting of pink on his cheeks. Gakushuu cocks his head, and smiles, and starts walking with Karma keeping pace next to him. 

“Pick me up at noon,” Gakushuu says. 

Karma huffs softly. Then, “can I hold your hand?”

“Okay,” Gakushuu says, and Karma steps closer and entwines his fingers with Gakushuu’s and presses their palms together.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was this series? My attempt at slow-burn? Haha let me know what you think. See you all soon!

**Author's Note:**

> See you next time!


End file.
